Dell GX240, Belkin F5D9050 Wireless G success plus questions
ALittleSlow
non-profit organization's small library.
First the good news:
Webconverger 4.3 maxi CD-ROM live works fine on my hardware:
Dell Optiplex GX240, 256MB RAM
Belkin F5D9050 v.4000 USB wireless adapter
Netgear wireless router with wireless G, wireless B, and WPA-PSK TKIP
and WPA2-PSK TKIP enabled
I added just this boot parameter to the default "live" grub option:
wlan=[myESSID],[myPassphrase]
The less than good news:
A. When the router was set to WEP only (with the wlan parameter as
above), the following results were obtained:
1. DHCP DISCOVER would timeout with no reply.
2. DHCP would get an IP address from a subnet different from my
router's subnet. I assume this came from one of my neighbors' wireless
networks (at least two of which may be unsecured), but Icould not ping
anything. (Had it connected completely, this could be very bad for my
privacy. I would have been unknowningly using my neighbor's unsecured
network!)
B. When booting with no hard drive installed, hundreds of error
messages relating to read errors on hda were logged. This seemed to
get worse if the first drive was configured as "OFF" instead of "AUTO"
in the BIOS. Usually IceWeasel eventually would come up, but sometimes
it seemed to get stuck just scrolling read errors on hda.
Now for my questions:
1. Did I miss a boot parameter to tell Webc to use WEP?
2. Is there a boot parameter to allow Webc to use a diskless
workstation?
3. Is there a single reference anywhere that lists all the boot
parameters?
Finally, a comment:
Webconverger seems to be a very solid product. I understand that your
business model is to pay for development through customizations.
However, I believe the lack of documentation is severely limiting your
audience to mostly Linux professionals.
Thanks again!
-Brian
Kai Hendry
> 1. DHCP DISCOVER would timeout with no reply.
> 2. DHCP would get an IP address from a subnet different from my
> router's subnet. I assume this came from one of my neighbors' wireless
> networks (at least two of which may be unsecured), but Icould not ping
> anything. (Had it connected completely, this could be very bad for my
> privacy. I would have been unknowningly using my neighbor's unsecured
> network!)
If things go wrong, wpasupplicant (the wireless manager) is configured
to join any open network. Perhaps this is a bad default. I do put a
warning on http://webconverger.org/wireless/ that people should be
very careful with wireless and keep to only to HTTPS sites.
> B. When booting with no hard drive installed, hundreds of error
> messages relating to read errors on hda were logged. This seemed to
> get worse if the first drive was configured as "OFF" instead of "AUTO"
> in the BIOS. Usually IceWeasel eventually would come up, but sometimes
> it seemed to get stuck just scrolling read errors on hda.
Hmmm, this seems like a kernel problem. It should not be probing your
hard drives. I'll look into kernel boot options for you that might
help.
> Now for my questions:
> 1. Did I miss a boot parameter to tell Webc to use WEP?
No. Tbh I have not tried WEP networks. They're really insecure. :-) I
assumed the code I wrote here:
http://git.webconverger.org/?p=webconverger-base.git;a=blob;f=debian/webconverger.init#l106
Would work. Hopefully I'll get an opportunity to fix it, though would
I be losing many people if I said no to WEP?
> 2. Is there a boot parameter to allow Webc to use a diskless
> workstation?
You mean a netboot type configuration? Not sure what you mean.
> 3. Is there a single reference anywhere that lists all the boot
> parameters?
Best bet is http://webconverger.org/features/
It could be better I agree.
> Finally, a comment:
> Webconverger seems to be a very solid product. I understand that your
> business model is to pay for development through customizations.
> However, I believe the lack of documentation is severely limiting your
> audience to mostly Linux professionals.
You're right. I need to put more effort into making the download and
imaging process a step-by-step an "idiot proof" procedure. A just had
a suggestion that it should be a PDF too.
In the meantime, I would like to remind folks that the wiki is free
for you to improve. :)
nn,
Guttorm Flatabø
> If things go wrong, wpasupplicant (the wireless manager) is
> configured
> to join any open network. Perhaps this is a bad default. I
I do think this is a bad default as it can lead to other bad consequences to connect to an unknown network when it was not planned/expected. The option to connect to any open network should be kept though. It also wouldn't hurt to have an option for backup networks (any open, or network one, two and so on) but I wouldn't make it a priority.
> Hmmm, this seems like a kernel problem. It should not be
> probing your
> hard drives. I'll look into kernel boot options for you
> that might
> help.
When using Gentoo some years ago, I rolled my own kernel. There are lots of drivers and options that aren't really needed with Webconverger. I don't expect that you'll venture into this but if anyone would like to try there's howto here:
http://tinyurl.com/b54vpx
> > Now for my questions:
> > 1. Did I miss a boot parameter to tell Webc to use
> WEP?
>
> No. Tbh I have not tried WEP networks. They're really
> insecure. :-) I
> assumed the code I wrote here:
> http://git.webconverger.org/?p=webconverger-base.git;a=blob;f=debian/webconverger.init#l106
I have tried WEP, and it works. I do not think you can use a "passphrase" however, you'll have to specify the hexadecimal number that the passphrase is converted into.
As for security, I suppose that most Webconverger users use it for the Kiosk-functionality where security is just an extra bonus. I use WEP here at work all day long and it doesn't pose any problem at all. That could have been different if our office was in the middle of a big city though...
Connecting to the internet is first priority, if I'll have to use WEP, then so be it.
> I be losing many people if I said no to WEP?
Yes, there are still lots of WEPs out there:)
> > 2. Is there a boot parameter to allow Webc to use a
> diskless
> > workstation?
>
> You mean a netboot type configuration? Not sure what you
> mean.
I think he was just unsure if he had missed a boot option because of all the kernel messages about his disks. So the answer is no, there is none and you normally wont/shouldn't get any messages when there is no disk installed (I've tried this myself with previous versions)
> In the meantime, I would like to remind folks that the wiki
> is free
> for you to improve. :)
I tried again to log in with my Yahoo ID but got the following message: Sorry! You will not be able to login to this website as it is using an older version of the the OpenID technology. Yahoo! only supports OpenID 2.0 because it is more secure.
(And then I used my myopenid)
--
Guttorm
Kai Hendry
> I do think this is a bad default as it can lead to other bad consequences to connect to an unknown network when it was not planned/expected. The option to connect to any open network should be kept though. It also wouldn't hurt to have an option for backup networks (any open, or network one, two and so on) but I wouldn't make it a priority.
Just to be clear wpasupplicant will only try join an open network if
it fails to join the configured one. I don't like the idea of
introducing "yet another option". I have to think about this a little
more.
Did I mention I hate wireless? :)
http://webconverger.org/wireless/
> I tried again to log in with my Yahoo ID but got the following message: Sorry! You will not be able to login to this website as it is using an older version of the the OpenID technology. Yahoo! only supports OpenID 2.0 because it is more secure.
>
> (And then I used my myopenid)
Ok, I've opened a bug with ikiwiki about this issue:
http://ikiwiki.info/bugs/support_for_openid2_logins/
Kind regards,
Guttorm Flatabø
I guessed;) What I really don't like is manufacturers who can't just make open source drivers by default.
> Ok, I've opened a bug with ikiwiki about this issue:
> http://ikiwiki.info/bugs/support_for_openid2_logins/
Nice, thanks:)